The National Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Programme began in 2009 and today’s publication of data marks a milestone. Since it began, more than one million patients have now provided information about their operations.

PROMs allow us to understand the difference that healthcare interventions make to people’s quality of life. Patients are asked to complete a questionnaire before and after their operation to demonstrate what benefits were delivered and whether they had any surgical complications.

Patients are asked to report on their outcomes at three months after groin hernia and varicose vein surgery, and six months after hip and knee replacements.

In 2014/15, a total of 267,046 PROMs-eligible procedures were carried out. The findings show that most patients report improvements in their health following surgery. The proportion of patients reporting an improvement has stayed broadly the same from previous years:

Following hip replacement, 96.4% of patients with complete pre- and post-operative questionnaires reported an improvement.

PROMs data also includes information about the surgical complications reported by patients on their post-operative questionnaire. It shows that between one in five and one in three patients report at least one post-surgical problem, depending on the condition:

27.5% of patients responding after a hip replacement;

31,7% of knee replacement patients;

20.7% of groin hernia patients; and

22.7% of varicose vein patients.

Dan Wellings, Head of Insight & Feedback, said: “The PROMs programme provides hugely valuable insight into the care the NHS provides. It allows us to understand, from the patient’s point of view, whether the care we provide is effective. Trusts and CCGs can use it to understand what they are doing well and where they need to improve.”

This is really important information. I do hope that all those trusts that have recently announced they are stopping or limiting operations of this kind will think again. Clearly they are reaping enormous benefits for large numbers of people in a life-changing way. It’s good to see this being measured and reported transparently.